President Biden’s directive is to remove barriers in Def Tech sharing with India: Jake Sullivan

The US is keen to deepen its cooperation with joint development and production of critical defence technologies in India and President Joe Biden has given a directive to remove all obstacles towards meeting this goal, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said.

Sullivan, who met the top Indian leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the US has responded “in a way that we have not seen before” to deliver material progress on tangible areas of defence cooperation.

“The President gave a directive to every element of the US government to remove unnecessary obstacles and barriers to deepen defence, trade and technology cooperation. He wants to make good on a long-standing promise made between the US and India that we would deepen our cooperation including co-production and co-development. Having co-production means that critical technologies are produced here in India,” he said during a meeting with select media persons.

Sullivan was speaking ahead of Modi’s visit to the US later this month where several substantive announcements are expected, including technology transfer and production of American-origin GE 414 fighter jet engines in India. “The particular issue of the GE engine is important in some respect, this is exquisite technology, it is important technology. But it’s also relevant insofar as the progress we can make on the GE engine will help propel progress on other areas as well as we move forward,” he added.

The senior official added positive conversation has taken place towards fulfilling some of India’s requirements when it comes to maritime domain awareness, without going into details on whether this could mean a deal for additional UAVs.

Sullivan said that other areas where progress is expected include semiconductor supply chains and a substantial announcement is likely as soon as next week. “We would like to contribute to the growth of semiconductor manufacturing in India. That’s one area where we would like to make rapid progress and show results,” he said.

ET Bureau

Sullivan added that cooperation on other areas like 5G, 6G and Open RAN, besides Artificial Intelligence will also be enhanced. “One of the areas that I expect Prime Minister Modi and President Biden to spend time on during their working sessions next week is artificial intelligence, because it is going to be so transformative of our economies, our societies, our national security,” he said.

On China, Sullivan said that the US is in competition but does not see an approaching conflict or the start of a new Cold War. He said that the US wants to manage competition responsibly and not enter a downward spiral in ties.

“The President has always said intense competition requires intense diplomacy. We have to manage this relationship carefully so that things don’t get out of control. And that was the spirit with which he approached his meeting with President Xi in Bali last year,” Sullivan said.

During the delegation-level talks with NSA Ajit Doval earlier in the day, Sullivan devoted considerable focus on the role of China in Asia and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). It has been learnt that China’s expanding footprint across Asia with specific focus on its long-term designs in the IOR received considerable focus in the talks.

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